Strength
by AwesomeInABottle
Summary: Everyone needs something to stop the hurt, but sometimes the need is what causes the hurt. This is the story of each of the New Directions and the one push that showed them who they really were. *I'm not very good at summaries* Chapter 2: Sam
1. Chapter 1

Everyone has something that keeps them going. Something that lets them make it through the day, because the fact is _everyone _is hurting even if you can't tell. That something, be it a person, an emotion or a dream, is the only thing that anyone can really depend on. Without it, no one could live. And sometimes, the thing you need the most is the reason you need it.

Because, even though it hurts to let go, sometimes it hurts even more to keep it. And so the battle rages, the need forcing against the pain, until one day something pushes, tipping the balance, destroying what they worked for all those years. They give up, and off a precipice they tumble. There is almost never a happy ending for those poor, broken souls.

Some people, however, win the battle. Those are the lucky ones, those are the few.

All the desperate souls are attracted to each other, gravitating towards the like-minded. That is why, despite the seemingly random order of events that caused the revival of the Glee Club, all of the people are so damaged.

These are the stories of each of the members as their inner battles rage. What they depend upon, what they struggle with and the one, final push


	2. Sam

I'm not stupid. Everybody thinks I am, but I'm not. I just don't care about their petty little issues, or what they have to say. Why would I? I actually have some legitimate problems and _I _manage to deal on my own. Not like these whiny, insecure morons, whose biggest problem is that no one wants to go out with them.

I've been evicted. Literally thrown from my _home_, the only fucking place in this dead beat town I sort of _liked_, into a shabby hotel room with bad lighting and no personal space. I would leave, but I couldn't do that to my brother and sister. Some days, their all that keeps me in this grayscale life. I've got no interest in class anymore, not that it matters anyway. There's no way I'll get to go to college. In fact, I'm pretty lucky I even get to go to school.

A bitter smile crosses my face. _Lucky_. That was my first song in Glee club, before everything had fallen apart. Before Quinn had cheated on me. Before my Dad's job fell through. Who would have thought that I would have ended up like this?

Leaning against a wall, too fed up with my dyslexia to go back to class, a sigh escaped my lips. I just don't _get _it. I know I could be smart, I know i could bring my grades up if it were all just… In order. I think I've got the right answers for the questions _I'm _seeing, at least in maths. But I don't see what everyone else sees. Even that idiot, Finn, is passing all his classes and I _know _I'm better than him. You know I can write poetry? Well, not write. I can't put the letters to paper, but in my head it sounds really great. I can compose music as well, and I taught myself to play guitar. No one knows that, because no-one ever bothers to ask.

I sigh and stand up, my breath made tangible by the cold Ohio winter. One glance at my watch tells me that the period I was skipping (Spanish, because even though Mr. Schuester might go ape on me there's no way I'm learning a new language when I'm fighting with English.) was just about over and it was time to mingle in with the crowds of brain dead students in the hall. I don't want to go back, but skipping all day might get noticed and I can't get in too much trouble. I need to set some sort of example for Stacy and Stevie. They actually have a shot in this world.

I'm not jealous though. Sure, I wish I had the opportunities they have, but I'm really just proud of them. I don't wish anything but the best on them, and I know they they're going to get it. Stevie's a total whiz on the computer and he's barely 11, and Stacy could talk Coach Sylvester into giving up cheerleading and working at a homeless shelter for the rest of her life.

My father is an idiot and my mother is weak, so they're not good role models. My father brought us to Smalltown USA for nothing but greed. He wanted a better job, a better standing in society and decided to become a big fish in a little pond. He gave no thought to the fact that we didn't have a steady income here, went after some job he wasn't qualified for and left us stranded. Whereas my mother upped and left _her _career, because she could never tell him no. I'm the by-product of their idiocy, a bastard child born well before they were ready to be married. My birth forced them into marriage, when if they were given time they would have gone their separate ways. I am the poorly applied bandage that barely sticks, holding on just enough to stop the wound from splitting, but not enough to staunch the bleeding.

There's no point to anything, anymore. I'm pretty sure I'd kill myself, if it wasn't so selfish. And I'm _not _selfish. I'm lonely and deprived and _angry, _but I couldn't ruin everyone else's lives just to give me some peace.


End file.
